From the moment top secret stealth helicopters loaded with dozens of hard-bitten Navy SEALs landed at the terror leader’s compound, to their arrival back across the Afghan border — minus one chopper and plus one corpse — the raid took just 40 minutes.

Operation Neptune Spear was the product of a decade of painstaking, often-frustrating intelligence work — a vague clue here, a hunch there, and lots of dead ends.

In Washington that weekend, all eyes were on Obama — and he fooled everyone.

On Saturday night, wearing a tuxedo and a wide grin, he was at the White House Correspondents Dinner, needling Donald Trump with birth certificate jokes. Not one of the many reporters in the room had the smallest inkling of what was afoot.

On Sunday afternoon, wearing a windbreaker and a pinched expression, Obama sat tensely in the Situation Room with his top military advisors, watching the operation play out on a wall screen.

Two dozen SEALs — some wearing helmet cameras — had flown into Pakistan from nearby Afghanistan and were landing in Bin Laden’s front yard at 11 p.m. local time on a moonless night.

President Obama will not officially commemorate the successful mission that killed Osama bin Laden one year ago today, according to the White House.

But his re-election campaign, eager to use the anniversary for political gain, has been trumpeting the 2011 decision to send a covert Navy SEALs team into Pakistan, thrusting it to the forefront of national political debate.

Asked by reporters following a campaign event here whether he would have given the order to go after bin Laden, Romney suggested that any president would have made the same decision as President Obama.

“Of course. Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order,” Romney said, referring to the former Democratic president known for his reluctance to use military force.

On Sunday, former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs insinuated in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Romney might not have given the order to kill bin Laden, mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Asked if Romney would have made the same decision as Obama, Gibbs said: “I don’t think it’s clear that he would.”

“Again, he criticized Barack Obama a few years ago when Barack Obama said, ‘If we have actionable intelligence about a high value target,’ and let’s be clear. Nobody was bigger, nobody was a more high value target than Osama bin Laden,” Gibbs said “Meet the Press.”

Gibbs added, “Look, just a few years ago, President Obama – then a candidate – said in a speech that if we had actionable intelligence of a high-value target in Pakistan, we’d go in and get that high value target. Mitt Romney said that was foolish. He wouldn’t do such a thing. That he wouldn’t move heaven and earth to get Osama bin Laden.”

Hyundai says it will hire 877 people at its Montgomery, Ala., assembly plant so it can run a third shift to make more cars.

The added hiring will help Hyundai build more Sonata midsize sedans and Elantra compact cars at the plant. The third shift will raise the plant’s output by 20,000 vehicles this year.

The Sonata and Elantra are Hyundai’s two biggest sellers in the U.S.

Dealers have complained that they can’t get enough of the cars, and Hyundai has been struggling to find ways to build more of them.

Hyundai says hiring and training will begin this summer, and the plant will transition to a third shift in September. The added production is also expected to create more jobs at nearby parts-supply companies.

“Mayday,” which is used as a distress signal and derives from the French “m’aider (“come help me”), is being given new meaning by Wall Street and its Bankers in response to the upcoming “May Day” Occupy national protests.

This May Day demonstration will be the largest of its kind in a half-century and will take place in cities across the U.S. On May 1, 2012, tens of thousands of people throughout the U.S. and the world — workers, students, immigrants, professionals, houseworkers — employed and unemployed alike – will take to the streets to unite in a General Strike against “a system that does not work for us.”

May Day is a holiday for the 99 percent. It is a day for people to come together, across all those lines which too often divide us — race, class, gender, religion — and challenge the systems that create these divisions.
The expected response from the City? Don’t expect ticker-tape.

Being aware of the financial community’s alarm and Mayor Bloomberg’s mindset, I sought out one of New York City’s most active volunteers (I was told she was “awesome” – and she is), Jackie DiSalvo, to determine the legitimacy of this hand-wringing and get a better idea of the “Occupy” side of this story.

Obama himself has stated that the cost was closer to 1 trillion. (and that’s the total cost of both wars) The actual amount aproved by congress surpassed 1 trillion under Obama. Obama killed Osama using intelligence gathered by water-boarding Guantanamo detainees. Things he excoriated Bush for. Wars cost money. You might not think that the wars are righteous, but Obama obviously agrees enough to continue them both. He talks about pulling the troops out periodically, but he talks about a lot of stuff that doesn’t get done. Guantanamo is still open for business, we’re in Iraq, the recession is still going strong……. the sea hasn’t receeded…. etc…

My health insurance rate went up over 200 bucks a month two months after the Afordable Care Act was enacted. This could be Obama’s most significant accomplishment, and it says alot that his biggest acheivment is likely to be found unconstitutional in the near future.

There are about a million fewer people with jobs now than when Obama took office. The number of jobs lost during his presidency far outnumber the number created. Net job loss, he hasn’t even broken even yet.

DJIA is up, and the sun has come up every day as well, does he get credit for that too?

BushII doubled the national debt during his term, so I would guess that much of that $4-5trillion went to fight the war. He also lowered taxes during wartime, something no other president has ever done. Since we are fighting the war on terror with borrowed money and we never pay down the national debt by even a penny, we will be paying for this war in perpetuity.